The present invention relates to a new mooring station and transfer terminal for offshore hydrocarbon production, suitable for mooring oil processing or/and transportation ships.
At the present time offshore hydrocarbon production is developing at locations remote from conventional harbors and this added to the continuous weight increase of oil tankers, leads to building artificial terminals for mooring oil tankers during loading thereof or/and ships for processing the oil-containing effluent from the producing wells.
Known mooring stations and transfer terminals are connected to a plurality of production underwater wellheads, these terminals comprising a caisson surmounted by at least one rotatable arm which supports at least one pipe for loading oil tankers.
In such prior arrangements the different producing wellheads are connected through pipelines to a production manifold lying on the water bottom, this manifold being connected to the caisson through a gathering line lying on the water bottom and a riser connecting this gathering line to the loading pipe supported by the caisson.